# Notifications

> Notify users directly in MetaMask, or natively in their OS.

# Notifications

You can display notifications directly in MetaMask or natively in a user's operating system (OS)
using the [`snap_notify`](../reference/snaps-api/snap_notify.mdx) API method.

## Steps

### 1. Request permission to notify users

Request the [`snap_notify`](../reference/snaps-api/snap_notify.mdx) permission.
Add the following to your Snap's manifest file:

```json title="snap.manifest.json"
"initialPermissions": {
  "snap_notify": {}
}
```

### 2. Create a notification

Create a notification by calling [`snap_notify`](../reference/snaps-api/snap_notify.mdx), which takes
a notification `type` and `message`.
Specify `type: "inApp"` to display the notification in the MetaMask UI, or `type: "native"` to
display the notification in the user's OS.

:::note
We recommend using `type: "inApp"` because there's no guarantee that native notifications are
displayed to the user.
You can also call `snap_notify` twice, with each notification type, to trigger both an in-app and
native notification.
:::

The following example displays a notification in MetaMask, with the message "Hello, world!":

```javascript title="index.js"
await snap.request({
  method: 'snap_notify',
  params: {
    type: 'inApp',
    message: 'Hello, world!',
  },
})
```

    
        
    
    
        
    

:::info Notification rate limits
Each Snap can trigger up to:

- Five in-app notifications per minute.
- Two native notifications per five minutes.
  :::

## Expanded view

In-app notifications can include an optional expanded view that displays when selected.
The expanded view includes a title, [custom UI](custom-ui/index.md) content, and an optional footer link.

The following example displays a notification in MetaMask, with the message "Hello, world!"
When the user selects the notification, the expanded view displays a page with a title, a paragraph, and a link to the MetaMask Snaps directory:

```javascript title="index.js"
await snap.request({
  method: 'snap_notify',
  params: {
    type: 'inApp',
    message: 'Hello, world!',
    title: 'Hello',
    content: (
      <Box>
        <Text>Did you know you can find more Snaps in the MetaMask Snaps Directory?</Text>
      </Box>
    ),
    footerLink: {
      text: 'Visit the directory',
      href: 'https://snaps.metamask.io',
    },
  },
})
```

## Example

See the
[`@metamask/notifications-example-snap`](https://github.com/MetaMask/snaps/tree/main/packages/examples/packages/notifications)
package for a full example of implementing notifications using
[`snap_notify`](../reference/snaps-api/snap_notify.mdx).
This example exposes a [custom JSON-RPC API](../learn/about-snaps/apis.md#custom-json-rpc-apis) for
dapps to display in-app and native notifications.